Russia’s president orders cuts in gas supplies to Belarus over debt

Russia cuts gas supplies to Belarus over debt

MOSCOW — Russia on Monday started cutting most natural gas supplies to ex-Soviet neighbor Belarus over what it claims is a debt of nearly $200 million, threatening to rekindle political disputes in the region over energy policy.

President Dmitry Medvedev met early Monday with Alexei Miller, the chief of state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom, and in televised remarks ordered him to implement cuts “to protect the interests of the Russian state.”

Miller said an initial 15 percent cut would gradually rise to 85 percent, the remainder serving to maintain its pipeline that is also used for transit of Russian gas supplies to other parts of Europe.

Russia last week warned Belarus to start paying off the debt or face cuts. Belarus has challenged the Russian claim and refused to pay in a case which resembles a 2009 dispute involving Ukraine. In that case, Russia shut off gas supplies in the middle of winter, affecting millions across Central and Eastern Europe.

Miller said that European customers won’t be affected by the Belarusian shut-off as Gazprom can channel gas supplies normally going via Belarus to another transit pipeline crossing Ukraine. Also, gas consumption in summer is low compared with its peak in the winter and the pipelines aren’t filled to full capacity.

But Belarus’ Energy Ministry in a letter to the European Commission late Monday warned that a drop of more than 15 percent could lead to transit shortages. The state news agency BelTA said the letter was addressed to the commission’s energy official Anne Houtman. Attempts to contact her after business hours were unsuccesful.

The agency mentioned no explicit quantity by which supplies to Europe could fall, descibring any reduction as “technical.”

The biggest impact of Russia’s cutoff of natural gas to Belarus could be felt by EU member Lithuania, which gets all of its gas imports from Russia by pipeline across Belarus, EU spokeswoman Marlene Holzer said.

She added that Poland and Germany get some Russian gas through Belarus, and the cut-off may hamper their efforts to put gas in storage for the winter.

EU officials were meeting to assess the impact of Russia’s latest gas cutoff.

Russia has cut gas supplies to both Ukraine and Belarus several times in recent years due to payment disputes, and many European consumers have suffered amid freezing winter temperatures.

Moscow-based Metropol investment bank also said in a note to investors that the shutdown is unlikely to affect Gazprom’s customers in Europe during the low season. “Gazprom could ship the gas through Ukraine to Poland and on to Germany,” it said, adding that the conflict will likely be resolved quickly.

Russia is Belarus’ main ally and sponsor, but relations between the two former Soviet countries have been strained by financial arguments.

“The Kremlin wants to remind (Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko) who is sponsoring the Belarusian economy,” said Sergei Chalyi, an independent Belarusian economic analyst.

Belarus’ economy has been struggling to cope with rising Russian natural gas prices and excise hikes on Russian oil imports. Lukashenko has insisted that Russia provide it with cheap oil and gas as part of the customs union deal to come into force July 1, but Moscow has rejected the demand.

Gazprom insisted that Belarus must pay $187 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas this year, but Belarus insisted it should be charged only $150.

Lukashenko said last week that Belarus owes nothing to Gazprom and warned Moscow that it could lose its ally. “It’s unacceptable to treat an allied state like that,” he said.

Belarusian officials have contended that Russia owes an equally large sum for the transit of natural gas via Belarus to European consumers — a charge Gazprom has rejected. Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov on Monday acknowledged a debt for transit, but claimed that it had been created artificially by Belarus putting up procedural obstacles to the company paying it off.

Some other observers said that Moscow also might have punished Lukashenko for offering asylum to Kyrgyzstan’s toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Kyrgyzstan’s new rulers have accused Bakiyev of instigating ethnic violence that has killed up to 2,000 ethnic Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan and forced another 400,000 to flee for their lives. Bakiyev has denied playing any role in the unrest from his refuge in Belarus.

“The Kremlin knows about Bakiyev’s involvement in staging riots in southern Kyrgyzstan and is giving an exemplary punishment to Lukashenko for his support of the ousted president,” said Alexander Klaskovsky, an independent Minsk-based political analyst.

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Associated Press Writers Robert Wielaard in Brussels, Gary Peach in Moscow and Yuras Karmanau in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, contributed to this report.